By Dustin Cabeal

Something I used to do quite often was mini-reviews. Essentially talk about books that I didn’t want to do a full review for, but still wanted to mention and maybe even attach a score to. If we have a full review for something it won’t show up here, but here’s some titles I read this week that are worth mentioning.

MEGA PRINCESS #1 – Score: 3/5

It was what I expected. Its 100% a kaboom! title and while that’s not bad, it’s just clearly not for me. Mega Princess is well put together. The story is easy to follow, and the art is bright and wonderful. I loved the art. The story feels like a bad audition for a Saturday morning cartoon. Bad in that it’s trying to show how it’s different from all the rest, but failing to entertain while doing so. The parts that make up the story, I liked. It’s just that the most important part was missed, making a story I also liked.

DOOM PATROL #3 – Score: 4/5

Hey, I understand more of the plot! This book continues to be great. I enjoy the hell out of it, though I will say that Way is treading a fine line of meta to tell his story. I hope that it doesn’t get lost in that because it would ruin everything that’s been great up until now. Hands down Casey reading a comic about herself from her perspective making it our perspective was incredible, but don’t do that every time. Also, Danny is pretty fucking great. If you hated issue one or two, you'd continue to do so. If you loved them, you'd continue to do so. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t write another full review saying “I’m confused, but I understand more and look at that fucking art!”

SPIRIT HUNTERS #1 – Score: 3/5

Zenescope’s new title written by its founders actually surprised me. It’s a big step away from the T&A that the publisher has relied upon for years. The overall premise of a “Ghost Hunters” type team with actual law enforcement authority isn’t new, but it’s interested the way it’s set up here. The only downside of the issue was all the excessive talking and backstory reveals. I skipped most of it because I could instantly tell that it had nothing to do with the plot of the issue and everything to do with developing the characters. The problem was, I didn’t care about the characters yet. I’ll check out the next issue and see if it’s better, but really they should have saved that for an arc in the story rather than filler for this issue. The art was solid, but the artist loved relying on shadows and there were some details mentioned rather than shown. Otherwise, not a bad first issue by any means and enticed me to check out the next issue at the very least.

BRIGANDS #1 – Score: 3/5

I didn’t hate it. I didn’t love it, but I would read another issue. The story seemed like a Robin Hood type character that’s caught, about to be killed and instead pulled for a mission to find a weapon with great power that shows up from time to time and changes the course of history/war. It’s well told, but I’m not a big fan of the era. The art never really did it for me. The linework is thick and going for a Mignola style, but it lacks the details that make that style great. It’s okay, but it needs more time to develop and a better colorist. The coloring was far too basic and killed the mood of the story often. Based on how it ended I would check it out again, but it would have its work cut out to keep me.

There you have it, mini-reviews. I don’t know if I’ll always do them, but like I said. I had something to say about all of them, but not enough to meet my own review standards so here’s the middle.